A seqfan forum...

[Max A.]

I think there is a difference between newsgroups that spread around
the world and groups that are *hosted* at Google Groups (GG).
sci.math is an example of the first kind, while, say, GMail Help
Discussion is an example of second kind:
http://groups.google.com/group/Gmail-Help-Discussion

GG cannot do much with newsgroups like sci.math, it just forwards
messages back and forth between people who read it through GG and
people who use other news-servers or services. If these other
news-servers and services is the source of crappy things (as it is
usually so), GG cannot do anything about that.

But over locally hosted (i.e., at Google) groups GG has the total
control. In particular, it can require authorization for people (at
the group's owner discretion) who wants to join and to post there and
really hide senders' emails from outsiders and email harvesters. Take
a look at GMail Help Discussion, you won't find any spam messages
there and you won't see senders' emails right away. Moreover, if
joining a group requires a personal authorization of the group
administrator (like in the case of SeqFan), there is no way for
spammers and viruses to abuse such a group.

Max

On 1/12/07, Leroy Quet <qq-quet at mindspring.com> wrote:
> I must issue a word of warning, especially if seq.fan moves to Google
> Groups or the like (or if the email list is kept in addition to having a
> newsgroup for seq.fan).
>
> First, Google Groups (at least) requires, in order for you to post (but
> not to read) to it, that you submit your email address, which ends up
> being published along with your posted messages.
> (Don't be fooled by the truncated versions of posters' email addresses
> that appear with their posts. The full email addresses appear at other
> newsgroup portal sites, at least as of when I last checked, which was
> about a year ago.)
>
> Second, I am sure that spammers and virus writers would just LOVE to post
> to seq.fan. I think keeping them away would be a very technical problem
> if seq.fan became a newsgroup.
>
> Third, if the goal is to keep away unworthy messages, then have a look at
> some of the postings on Google Groups, especially on sci.math (as
> accessed by any web-based newsgroup portal or newsreader without a
> moderator). PURE NUTCASE RUBBISH! (Plus the undesirable flame-wars I
> could do without). I tell you now, as a light reader of sci.math, even
> seq.fan's most undesirable posters are posting great masterpieces of
> mathematics in comparison to much of the (often off-topic) crap posted to
> sci.math (at least as posted now days...I think sci.math USED TO have
> mostly high-quality, or at least on-topic, posts).
> Seq.fan probably should be highly selective about who it allows to post.
> (Yet I actually think that every poster that currently posts to seq.fan
> should be allowed to keep posting for now. Even the most offensive of
> these, I say again, are a joy to read as compared to who might be tempted
> to subscribe if seq.fan goes more public.)
>
> Thanks, sorry about my technical ignorance of the web,
> Leroy Quet
>
>